I did too, for a really long time. Then I went and did something about it.
I had bookmarked DK’s recipe from Chef in You ages ago and kept going back to it hoping to recreate it soon. Then one rainy day I decided it has to happen today!
It could be the humidity or the yeast or the kind of flour I used but her measurements did not work for me. I had to add a lot more flour and still ended up with a super sticky dough. I improvised, gulped a few times expecting all that flour and other ingredients to go into the bin, but magically, it turned out great! You may also like this pizza base recipe and melon pan bread, a popular Japanese bread.
I am sharing the proportions I used with a heavy disclaimer that you may need to adjust the ingredients and their quantities as you go. Ready?
Indian Pav Bread Recipe
Preparation time: 2 hours
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Makes 10-12 rolls
Loosely adapted from Chefinyou
Ingredients:
3 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 cup of atta / chapati flour
2 1/4 tsp of instant yeast (one sachet)
1 cup of milk
1 of egg
1 tsp of salt
1 tbsp of sugar
3 tbsp of butter
2 tsp of melted butter (for brushing on pav before baking)
1/4 cup of warm water
How to Make Pav Bread
1 Add the yeast and sugar to the warm water and set aside until it turns bubbly and froths up – about 15 mins or so. If your yeast mixture doesn’t froth up like below and smell awful, you need to buy new stock.
2. Warm the milk and add the butter and egg to it. Beat until combined. Add salt and the yeast mixture to this.
3. Add the flour a little at a time to this mixture and mix gently.
Once all the flour has been added, knead gently until the mixture comes together. I used my stand mixer for this but you can also do this by hand. Flex those muscles, that’s the best part of bread-making, I am told!
4. I got a pretty sticky dough at the end of this. If you notice DK’s pics, her dough is very smooth. Either ways, it’s going to turn out fine so don’t worry. Transfer this dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a cloth or cling wrap and set aside to rise.
After about 2 hours, my dough looked like this. Gorgeous, eh?
5. Punch it down gently…
… and pinch off large tennis-ball-sized balls and place on a greased baking dish, barely touching each other. Leave some space for the rolls to rise, but not too much.
6. Set side until doubled in size – about 30 mins to an hour. Brush with melted butter.
7. Bake in an oven pre-heated at 350F/180C for ~ 25 mins. The top should turn a nice golden brown. My oven has temperature variations inside so that’s why one side is slightly overdone than the other. Rotating the pan while baking will help minimize the effect of this. I am just lazy to do that, don’t be like me.
You can brush some more butter on top when it’s fresh out of the oven.
Super soft rolls are ready to be devoured along with your favourite bhaji (pav bhaji) recipe.
I want to leave you with some stuff I learned while baking pav so the pics below are your reference on what not to do while baking pav. I had laid out most of the rolls in a square baking tray. However, I left too much space between the rolls. After rising, they spread out too much resulting in flat (although delicious) pav. Don’t make that mistake, ok? Leave not more than 1″ max between the rolls before you let them rise before baking.
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| Too much space between the rolls before baking |
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| Too flat |
Don’t you love it when you can learn from others’ mistakes and not have to go through the same yourself? Yeah, me too.
Anonymous says
August 11, 2012 at 12:36 pmhi, i'm a vegetarian and would appreciate if you could confirm whether we could omit using the egg you mention in the recipe and if it would still turn out good. Thanks a lot!
Nagalakshmi V says
August 11, 2012 at 12:55 pmno in this pav recipe, you need the eggs
srav says
July 4, 2012 at 8:47 amhello..i have tried making these yesterday..but they came out hard..can u tell me what might be the prob? yours look so soft
Nagalakshmi V says
July 4, 2012 at 1:33 pma number of things could have gone wrong. did you use fresh yeast?
srav says
July 4, 2012 at 8:42 ami have tried making these buns yesterday..but they came out hard..can u please tell me what might be the problem?yours look soo soft..
Padhu says
April 6, 2012 at 8:17 amI have never made pav at home . Will surely try these.
notyet100 says
April 5, 2012 at 4:08 pmUmmm thy look yum,,will try these some times,,,:)
Jon says
April 5, 2012 at 9:28 amI made these yesterday.
Well… I intended to make them, but for some bizarre reason I accidentally used besan (chickpea flour) instead of atta.
But they actually turned out fine – 'heavier' than pav should be, but they had a great flavour, and went really well with the bhaji I made.
Nagalakshmi V says
April 5, 2012 at 9:31 amoh wow, bread with besan, that's interesting!
Lavanya says
April 4, 2012 at 4:33 amNags, I loved the bit about what not to do (with pics), yes, the bread looks lovely… but the fact that you still decided to put it and let us know from your mistake… hmm..! now that is something else! You go girl (Thumbs up) 🙂
Nagalakshmi V says
April 4, 2012 at 5:39 amaww thank you 🙂 i don't want anyone to make the same mistake i do. i don't always claim to be an expert you see. in most cases, i am making these recipes for the first time myself 🙂
Shabitha Karthikeyan says
April 4, 2012 at 3:45 amBuns looks so soft !! Nicely done !!
Soundarya V says
April 4, 2012 at 12:43 amPav Bun looks soft and fluffly..Wish I cheched your post before I made Dabeli with it..
vjperera says
April 3, 2012 at 7:20 pmThanks for making that mistake Nags :). Can't wait to try. Who doesn't love pav bhaji.
Anitha santosh says
April 3, 2012 at 5:23 pmhi im anitha wow it is suparb doing pav at home love it thanks nag plz do teach me sum great recipes in chicken because my husband loves chicken a love im frm bangalore im a kannadiga
Carly says
April 3, 2012 at 12:05 pmSo excited for this recipe! I love me some Pav Bhaji – and also like to bake. Home bread just can't be beat.
I think Parkerhouse dinner rolls could be really tasty as well (similar idea, very buttery rolls: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/parker-house-rolls-recipe/index.html)
Priya says
April 3, 2012 at 8:29 amExcellent buns,looks super soft and fluffy.
rekhas kitchen says
April 3, 2012 at 5:29 amPav buns looks soft and fluffy. My heart full thanks to your friend and you too..
Mamtha says
April 2, 2012 at 7:00 pmWOW!! i jus had pav bhaji at a restaurant yesterday, and thought of hunting the recipe, and lo!! i saw ur recipe on my news feed…
Kalyani says
April 2, 2012 at 11:48 amwow looks fluffy and so soft……..
RAKS KITCHEN says
April 2, 2012 at 10:47 amLooks so so soft and wish i could have it for dinner 🙂
Sindhu says
April 2, 2012 at 10:08 amHi….as u had mentioned,I tried using the exact measurements as in the "chef in you" blog,but my dough was very sticky and I ended up adding 3 more cups of all purpose flour to reach the consistency..however the result was awesome as the pavs came out very well….ur recipe seems to be interesting as well…wld try it very soon….
Premalatha Aravindhan says
April 2, 2012 at 8:43 amwow so soft buns,love the clicks nags:)
Arch says
April 2, 2012 at 7:54 amThese look beautiful! I wonder why you were so worried :)I should try making these; my yeast love has been from pizza to various types of loaves and dinner rolls. But no pav, as yet!
Divya Kudua says
April 2, 2012 at 6:22 amYou are so right about wanting to make Pav from scratch.I am taking baby steps in yeast baking these days and I just might go ahead and try this recipe!
Tina says
April 2, 2012 at 6:20 amFabulous…
Nisha says
April 2, 2012 at 5:29 amThe pictures and tip that you left with "Don't make that mistake, ok?" sounded like an elder sister guiding… you know what I mean? 🙂
I've tried other breads, pretzels, etc … yet to try pav, bagels et al. To me baking sweet stuff is so much more satisfactory that baking breads, though i enjoy the latter too, hehe.
Nagalakshmi V says
April 2, 2012 at 5:39 ami know what you mean 🙂
jeyashrisuresh says
April 2, 2012 at 5:04 amwow super soft buns, i always mess up whenever i handle with yeast!!
uma shankar says
April 2, 2012 at 5:01 amwow super buns!
Arch says
April 2, 2012 at 4:41 amWow ! Baking pavs at home ? Super !! I love this pull-apart type of baking, its such fun !!
Sharmilee! :) says
April 2, 2012 at 4:32 amLooks gorgeous…soft and perfect pav buns.